most crying funeral in history

[Noddy The Beefy Egg]

And guys, in the library I will check out a book on DPRK in 2 days.

[LittleGrizzly]

I have heard people who lived in dictatorships with a kind of cult of personality being upset when thier leader died... i would imagine the cult of personality is much stronger in North Korea than most other dictatorships..

[Megas Methuselah]

I have heard people who lived in dictatorships with a kind of cult of personality being upset when thier leader died... i would imagine the cult of personality is much stronger in North Korea than most other dictatorships..

Given the level of isolation and propaganda the country floats in, I wouldn't be surprised.

[Samurai Waki]

I bet they were tears of happiness, and then crushing depression, once they found out Kim Jong Il was going to take over the reigns.

[Sheogorath]

North Korea is a very strange country.

You have to consider the level of media control, and, historically, the 'cult of personality' in countries with such nigh-perfect control of the media, education and so on, the leader is often set up as the good guy. People hate the government, local officials, and the police, but view the leader as their father/god/whatever.

Prior to and during the second world war, people in the Soviet Union wrote to Stalin asking him to rein in the commissars, local party officials and so on.

You have to remember, a lot of those people were born into that regime, they don't know ANYTHING else. It's DAMN risky to get any kind of outside communication from within North Korea. A lot of them probably really believe that the US is the devil, Kim Jong-Il is the son of God and that he really does care about them, rather than spending all his time indulging in kidnapped Japanese children and imported cognac.

[Ibrahim]

I bet they were tears of happiness, and then crushing depression, once they found out Kim Jong Il was going to take over the reigns.

I'd have to agree: famine, starvation, political repression, massive lack of educated citizens (they have to import eye doctors for a short period of time every year, as an example), let's face it, the country is an up, and it takes a really blind or stupid person *to not see it. any outward attempt at "worship" is out of fear more than anything, seeing how r***** has a tight grasp on power. this is all assuming they aren't brainwashed.

*unless Ill had them all brainwashed, in which case, we are dealing with a whole new world.

[Megas Methuselah]

*unless Ill had them all brainwashed, in which case, we are dealing with a whole new world.

I'm quite sure that most of them are.

[Sheogorath]

As Megas said...

In North Korea, you can only buy state produced radios. These will only tune to specific channels. The only way to broadcast a pirate radio signal in North Korea is to overpower the 'legit' channels. Good luck doing that with the materials at hand. And, of course, once caught, you'll be sent to one of the concentration camps for a bit of reeducation.

Only the most loyal citizens, IE: those living in Pyongyang, are even allowed to own a computer. These are restricted with a REAL 'great firewall' which makes China's censorship software look like the sort of net you use to fish for whales. Rather like the one they used at my middle school, I imagine.

Funny story, we were doing a report on WWI, but the censorship software wouldn't let us look at any page which used the word 'gun'.


North Korea is basically what your crazy hippy neighbor said Bush was going to turn the US into. It's an Orwellian state realized, albiet imperfectly.

Even IF the 'worship' is faked, how long can you go on faking something before you start really believing it? Your entire life? Assuming you were raised from birth being told that Kim Jong-Il is the son of God and will wipe out the evil American pigdogs, while, daily, singing songs on a similar theme in school?